Tag Archives: asteroid

This past Thursday was a normal day for most; you probably didn’t even notice the mobile RV passing us in space. I mean, an asteroid that came close enough to hit us.

The asteroid 2012 TC4 flew by the Earth, about 26,000 miles away from our only home. Very close when considering the Moon is about 239,000 miles away from Earth. Rolf Densing, head of the European Space Operations Centre in Germany, called the asteroid “a close miss.”

An artist’s conception of 2012 TC4 passing by Earth; photo by nowreadthisnews.com

The asteroid had no chance of hitting the Earth but Antarctica got the closest sighting of the asteroid at 1:42 am. ET this past Thursday, October 12th.

After the discovery of the asteroid in 2012, the asteroid was too distant and faint to be detected. The rock is roughly 45 to 100 feet, traveling at 16,000 MPH.

NASA used the asteroid’s close travel to Earth to test their planetary defense system. The drill was to see if the system were to work if an actual asteroid were heading straight to the Earth. In previous tests, NASA would use pretend asteroids. Vishnu Reddy, a NASA consultant asked, “How prepared are we for the next cosmic threat?”

He would answer his question: “So we wanted to test how ready we are for a potential impact by a hazardous asteroid.”

NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office led the drill and they are in charge of coordinating efforts to protect Earth from hazardous asteroids. They are also responsible for finding, tracking, and characterizing potentially hazardous objects coming near Earth.

In order to deflect an asteroid, the asteroid would need to be detected years in advance. The most promising techniques that NASA are investigating are the “kinetic impactor” which uses an object to hit the asteroid to get it off course and the “gravity tractor” which would gravitationally tug on an asteroid by placing a large mass over it.

The good news for you and me is that there is no known asteroid that poses a significant risk of impact in the next 100 years.

Just four days after doomsdayers claimed the end of the world was approaching, NASA revealed a giant asteroid was heading towards Earth.

On Saturday, a “monster” asteroid flew by our planet at a speed of 40,000 mph. A strike by the 1.5 mile wide heavenly body with the name 86666 (2000 FL 10) would have been catastrophic, according to NASA scientists.

On Friday, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab’s Near Earth Object Office, which tracks asteroids, said it would not come closer than 15 million miles, called a ‘near miss’. NASA issued the all-clear, confirming that the giant asteroid 86666 passed by safely.

In response to Qs, asteroid 86666 (2000 FL 10) will safely pass Earth Oct 10 by over 15 million mi/25 million km. It poses zero threat.

Asteroid 86666 was first seen 16.2 years ago on the 30th of March, 2000 by the Catalina Sky Survey at the University of Arizona. The asteroid came closest to Earth on Saturday, and by mid-November they will be far away from each other.

NASA tracks asteroids and comets passing within 30 million miles of Earth using telescopes. The JPL program keeps track of the orbits of comets and asteroids and publishes warnings if one is due to crash into Earth, or if it will come close. People can also monitor the comets and asteroids themselves by typing the name of the rock into JPL’s Small-Body Database Browser.

Conspiracy theorists claimed one would hit Puerto Rico in September, causing widespread destruction to the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the US, Mexico and Southern America. Paul Chodas, manager of NASA’s Near-Earth Object office said there was ‘no scientific basis or shred of evidence’ to confirm those rumors.

In 2011 there were rumors about the so-called ‘doomsday’ comet Elenin. Then there were assertions surrounding the end of the Mayan calendar on the 21st of December 2012, insisting the world would end with a large asteroid impact.

Earlier this year, asteroids 2004 BL86 and 2014 YB35 were also said to be on dangerous near-Earth paths, but both went withoutincident.

All known Potentially Hazardous Asteroids, have less than a 0.01 percent chance of hitting Earth in the next 100 years. Chance of collisions with earth is highly unlikely so there’s seemingly nothing to worry about in our lifetime.

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